Following NY Times article, leader of security prisoners’ hunger strike sent to solitary

Marwan Barghouti, a senior-level Hamas official leading the security prisoners’ hunger strike, was transferred to Kishon Detention Center and is in solitary confinement. Other prisoners were also transferred to a different wing or even a different prison.

Senior-level Hamas official Marwan Barghouti, who initiated and led the hunger strike of 1,187 Palestinian security prisoners that began today (Monday), was transferred from Hadarim Detention Center to Kishon Detention Center as a form of punishment. Barghouti, who published a New York Times Op-Ed explaining the goals of the strike, is being held in solitary confinement along with several other prisoners.

Dozens of other security prisoners taking part in the hunger strike were also transferred to different wings and even different prisons. The move was intended to disperse the organizers of the hunger strike and try to stop its continuation. The Israel Prison Service said that the first day of the hunger strike went by “without any unusual events.”

In a Facebook post, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Major General Yoav (Poli) Mordechai blamed the New York Times for omitting the fact that Barghouti was a murderer and terrorist. “The American newspaper refers to Barghouti as ‘a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian,’” Mordechai wrote. “The Times editors failed to mention that Barghouti was also the commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades during the Second Intifada and is directly responsible for the murder of many Israeli civilians.”

“By referring to him only as a political figure,” he continued. “The Times failed to point out that after a fair trial in 2004, Barghouti was convicted of murder and carrying out terrorist acts and was therefore sentenced to five life sentences and an additional 40 years in prison. Barghouti is a murderer of Israeli civilians.”